Friday, September 21, 2012

Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium: Panic

By nature, I'm not typically a person who panics. I tend to act in an urgent or difficult situation instead of falling apart. But I can think of one time when I began to panic.
I was newly married and expecting our first child, when winter weather hit. It was very cold outside. We were renting the front portion of an old house in Provo, Utah. The back part of the house had been walled off so that it could be rented out to a different renter. The basement was also made in to an apartment for a third renter. On this day, our pipes froze, and we had no water.
My husband went downstairs to check out the pipes, and told me he had a way to fix the frozen pipes. I don't remember all the details, but I remember that it involved heating the pipe somehow. It was a very dark basement, so he asked me to go get a flashlight for him.
When I returned with the flashlight, I could hear flooding water crashing on the floor. I called out his name, but had no answer. I called him in a louder voice, and began to feel that panic rising in my chest. He still didn't answer, so I began to look for him. Even with a flashlight, I couldn't see well, and couldn't find him.
I can't remember what took me to the front of the house, but as I turned the corner and hurried to the front yard where the water main was located, I spotted my husband kneeling down. He was sopping wet, and I couldn't tell if he was hurt or not. I remember that when I called out his name, my voice was shaky, and had a hint of panic to it. He turned around and told me he was shutting off the main water valve.
Such a flood of relief came over me. But I also felt a little stupid for having given way to panic. Yet then again, part of me thought of what could have happened, and I felt lucky that he hadn't been injured when the pipe gave way. He was able to fix the problem, and got our water running properly again.
I'm sure that's not the last time that I will experience panic in my life, but I hope that when it happens again, I will keep my head about me, and react in a calm, level headed manner!
Now go check out how the other consortium members deal with panic:
Rummuser, Anu, Ashkok, Gaelikka, Grannymar, , Padmum, Magpie11, andAkanksha,Will Knot, Maria the Silver Fox, Anki, Nema Noor Paul Plain Joe, and Rohitand The Old Fossil, and our newest member MAXI!

5 comments:

Panic is usually imagination running riot. I can quite see how you panicked under those circumstances. I had seen my wife panic when our son got lost a couple of times and it was again just imagination running riot.